Thursday, October 7, 2010

This print by the German Symbolist Max Klinger was published in 1914 by Verlag E. A. Seemann, under the title Die Fakultäten.

Max Klinger, Die Fakultäten

Etching with aquatint, 1914

As I understand it (and my German is very shaky), this means Faculties as in the Faculties of a University, rather than human faculties, or even the Four Faculties of the Greek physician Galen. Which would mean that the ladies sitting on the rock represent Theology, Law, Medicine, and the Arts. The naked male figure is evidently Sisyphus, and the etching appears now to be generally known as Sisyphus, oder Die Fakultäten. Does anybody have a clue why Klinger should associate Sisyphus particularly with these female figures? Of course everybody feels that much of life is like pushing a rock endlessly uphill, only to have it roll back down just as you reach the brow, but I just don't understand the symbolism here.

The more I think about this, the more convincing it seems. The poor little Faculties, clinging for dear life to the rim of the rock, with Sisyphus straining to get them to the top of the hill, just know they are going to get chucked right back to the bottom, to start all over again. If this is the coded message of this etching, which is very deliberately dated 1914, and was issued in December of that year, then Klinger was playing a dangerous game. Most German artists of this time were quite happy to supply militaristic propaganda images to Paul Cassirer's Kriegszeit Kunstlerflugblatter (which changed its tone markedly as the war progressed). Of course someone else may be able to tell us that although issued in 1914, the plate was actually etched in 18somethingorother!

this is so interesting, you are right about Fakultaeten meaning faculties of an university. i have tried to find more information about this etching in all the german books available on the internet, and i was surprised to find that there are almost no mentions of it. i found only one book which had a print of it and there was an interpretation there as well, unfortunately google books had no preview of that :-(ps. as a strange coincidence, i have Klinger's book "Malerei und Zeichnung" (Painting and drawing), containing his letters, right here on my desk, i have been reading in it for some time now.

Thanks so much, Roxana - it's intriguing, isn't it? I think our interpretation is on the right track, but who knows? I've just posted some more images of Sisyphus, by André Masson, that make quite an interesting contrast with Klinger's.

Neil - The other really intriguing aspect to this picture is the depiction of the clouds. They look almost like the outline of countries. This is such a powerful image - thank you for making me aware of it.